Hi team,

Just finished CPL Navigation - 5th out of 7th ticked off. Now CFPA and CALW left to go for!

Good thing is CNAV is rather straightforward in comparison to other exams. You’ll be doing:
- 1/60 ROC / RODs within a certain airspace requirement, making sure you either have airspace protection (remember that +500ft!) and or remaining OCTA
- BOD and EOD calculations using lat and longs given by them. They’ll ask you for local times (with daylight savings so don’t forget to add +1 hours to AEST etc). When doing how many hours of daylight you have between two aerodromes, beware of the 10 minutes. You must plan to arrive 10 minutes prior, and that must be deducted from your hours of daylight question (i.e. 12 hr 5 mins vs 12 hr 15 mins)
- Know the principles of lats and longs. Got a question (or two) asking for the direction the Earth spins (counter-clockwise from North), and how many minutes 1° of longitude takes (4 mins!). Keep those in mind. Know your meridians and parallels of latitudes for Equator, Tropic of Cancer / Capricorn and Great Circles.
- Got a question in regards to VOR and NDB / ADF errors. Memorise the mnemonics by heart. NDB / ADF: MINTCHAT (Mountain Effect, Interference / Co-Channeling, Night Effect, Thunderstorms, Coastal Interference, Height, Aircraft Quadrantal, Terrain) and for VOR: AVGAST (Airborne Equipment, Vertical Polarisation, Aggregate, Site Effect, Terrain). I memorised GPS errors too (EMITRI) but didn’t see any GPS questions.

Operational NAV:

- Consult the ERSA for crosswind calculations / head wind / tailwind. Use your whiz wheel but double check with the ERSA (in GEN 2.7 I believe)
- Only got 1 fuel calc question - and it was regarding safe endurance. Do note they WILL TRICK YOU. I almost got caught out the first time round, and only after reading the question the second time did I realise. They may ask for SAFE ENDURANCE WITH RESERVES. That means you don’t have to minus final reserve from your total fuel. Keep that in mind.
- You will get USG > Litres / Kilogram conversions. Just refer to GEN 2.7 for that.
- Got a couple of questions in regards to ERC L 4, asking for what frequency to contact for SARWATCH cancellation.
- Used PCA to find out what kind of GAFs I’ll be flying through from A to B. Just draw a line and note down where you’re flying. (VIC, NSW-E, NSW W, etc)
- Don’t forget to calculate for crosswind correction derived from crosswind, and the ETAS of it if >10°. Had two questions where I had to work it out. Numbers came within 1kt / 1° so don’t be too concerned with accuracy for this. The other MCQ choices were obviously wrong.
- Note that GAF / GPWTs are True, and ATIS are Magnetic. Had a question where they gave just the W/V and you had to take those into account. Don’t get tripped up on that.
- Know your 3 degree glide slope formula: 318 x NM out from threshold + Airport Elevation = Answer.
- Remember what goes into usable fuel and what doesn’t. Know that final reserve is calculated using holding fuel consumption, and destination alternate is cruising fuel consumption.
- Know your relative bearing / magnetic bearing / heading calculations and questions. Did 3 of those in the exam.

Speed is of the essence here. Don’t get bogged down in the 1 markers. Personally I dove straight into the 2 markers first to get them out of the way, and then come back to the 1 markers. Double check your work, triple check your calculations if you have the time. They’re sneaky buggers and will penalise you if you’re a couple degrees / litres / off. Don’t give it to them.

Happy for those studying to drop by and ask any burning questions, hopefully you aced this as well as I did!

Godspeed.